The official juries for the next Locarno International Film Festival are already shaping up, with several personalities having already confirmed their participation.

The jury for the International Competition will include filmmaker HONG Sangsoo (Woman Is the Future of Man, Tale of Cinema), a leading talent in contemporary Korean cinema, whose latest film will screen in the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes; French screenwriter and filmmaker Pascal Bonitzer, who has enjoyed long term collaborations with Rivette, André Téchiné and Raul Ruiz, as well as having five feature films to his own credit, including Le Grand alibi (2008); Nina Hoss, noted film and stage actress, who won both Best Actress at the Berlin Festival and the “Lola” Best German Actress of the Year award for Yella (2007), directed by Christian Petzold, with whom she also made Wolsfburg and Jerichow. Another recently confirmed jury member is Catalan producer Luis Miñarro, who has partnered some of the most radical auteurs in Spanish cinema, such as Albert Serra and Marc Recha, as well as Lisandro Alonso and Manoel de Oliveira (Singularidades de uma Rapariga Loira).

The jury for the Filmmakers of the Present Competition comprises Filipino director Brillante Mendoza, discovered at Locarno in 2005 with Masahista (The Masseur), winner of the Golden Leopard in the Video Competition, and selected for competition at Cannes this year, for the second time, with Kinatay. He will be joined by one of the most exciting of current Chilean directors, Matías Bize (Sabado, En la cama) and German actress and filmmaker Angela Schanelec (Marseille, Nachmittag).

Finally, the jury for the short film section Leopards of Tomorrow will include the rising star of Romanian cinema, Adrian Sitaru, recipient of the Golden Leopard for Best International Short Film at Locarno in 2007 for Valuri (Waves); Céline Bolomey, selected as “Shooting Star” at the last Berlin festival and whose credits include Du bruit dans la tête by Vincent Pluss, for which she won the “Quartz 2009” Best Swiss Actress award; Palestinian director Najwa Najjar, whose first feature film, Pomegranates and Myrrh (2008), was presented at the recent Rotterdam and Sundance festivals; and Maike Mia Höhne, curator of the “Berlinale Shorts” section at the Berlinale.


The final line-up for the various juries will be completed over the coming weeks.